Strengthening Community Capacity to Address Trauma By Implementing a Community Ambassador Network in Los Angeles County

Introduction Trauma and violence are widespread and costly public health concerns. While the effects of trauma can be mitigated by trauma-informed care, service systems remain challenged to engage and establish trust with community members who would benefit from such resources. Community Ambassadors (CAs) are advocates that build trust with communities on behalf of service systems and facilitate access to resources through outreach and education. This presentation explores how a Community Ambassador Network (CAN) supported community engagement with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Innovations 2 initiative (INN2), which is a 5-year initiative focused on building capacity to address trauma across nine culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Los Angeles County.

Methods CAs were recruited from nine trauma-informed community-based partnerships to participate in focus groups, which explored their roles and experiences with INN2 and how CAs impacted initiative engagement in the community. Focus groups were audio recorded and professionally transcribed. Data were analyzed using a pragmatic two-phase strategy for efficiently qualitative data analysis. In Phase 1, data were reduced and organized using a summary template. In Phase 2, the content of summary templates was further summarized and displayed in a focus group-by-domain matrix.

Results Twenty-six CAs participated in 6 focus groups (N = 4 in English, N = 2 in Spanish). CAs reported being the community’s first point of contact with INN2 and described implementing initiative-related tasks, including community workshops, such as the Community Resiliency Model and the delivery of concrete supports, such as diapers and food pantry items. CAs facilitated community engagement with INN2 programming in three main ways: (a) sharing a cultural background with and having deep understanding of trauma in the communities they serve; (b) dispelling rumors surrounding enrollment in social programs, such as Medi-Cal and SNAP, and correcting misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine; and (c) improving credibility with the human service sector by representing organizations in the community. While CAs described having several supports from the department of mental health, such as trauma-informed trainings and monthly check-in meetings, some CAs reported wanting more trust from their supervisors and autonomy in their work overall.

Conclusion Focus group data suggest that a Community Ambassador Network improved community engagement with the INN2 trauma-informed community-based capacity building initiative, but questions remain regarding how to sustain this model. Further, system planners and community-based researchers wishing to scale up this model should quantitatively evaluate whether trauma-informed training impacts the effectiveness of this model, and the how CAs impact engagement with trauma-informed community-based resources more generally.